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In recognition of Foothill High School’s 50th anniversary, Pleasanton’s Museum on Main will be highlighting images and artifacts from the school’s first five decades in an upcoming exhibit.
“Falcons at Fifty: Foothill High School from 1973 to Today” opens on Thursday (July 13) and runs through Aug. 19 at the downtown museum.
Museum staff say the high school has played an important role in the city’s development and growth as it has continued to raise the next generation of Pleasanton residents and students. The exhibit will include historic photographs, memorabilia and artifacts from the school’s five-decade-long history, as well as interview clips from alumni, faculty and staff.
“Foothill was established at a time when Pleasanton was pretty far along its journey from farm town to suburb,” museum curator Ken MacLennan said in a statement. “The city’s population had quadrupled between 1960 and 1970, and it grew nearly another 150% between 1970 and 1973, topping 30,000 residents.”
MacLennan said most of the new families who moved to Pleasanton during this time had school-aged children.
The construction of the campus, Pleasanton’s second comprehensive high school, was aimed to fit the needs of those incoming students.
“Foothill was built primarily to serve these newer residential developments that formed sort of a crescent around the north, west, and south of old Pleasanton, and that’s one of the reasons they built it near the western boundary of town,” MacLennan said. “So from the beginning it was essentially a suburban high school serving a growing suburb.”
To fill the exhibit, the museum teamed up with several past Foothill students and parents for artifact loans. The curator noted that retired coaches Tom Hansen and Matt Sweeney, and retired history teacher Larry Boston offered memorabilia from their personal collections.
“We have a number of Foothill alumni and parents among our volunteer corps. They’ve been able to offer some great items (such as) band and athletic apparel, school projects, that kind of thing, to supplement what we’ve already got, which is mostly yearbooks, documents and images,” MacLennan said.
In celebration of the exhibit’s opening, the museum will host a public reception and discussion panel July 20 from 5-7 p.m.
The panel, which will run from 5 to 6 p.m., is set to feature several past Foothill teachers and staff members. A reception with snacks and refreshments will follow the discussion.
“This program will be part of our ‘A Discussion with …’ series that provides the community with opportunities to hear from speakers and ask them questions about their experiences and knowledge,” museum director of education Rachel Brickell said in the same announcement statement.
“The community will be able to hear from teachers or staff members that experienced Foothill grow and change across multiple decades,” Brickell added.
To find out more about the exhibit, visiting hours or other upcoming Museum on Main events, visit www.museumonmain.org.
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